2of 2Officers investigate downed wires on Pearson Road after the Camp Fire ravaged the town of Paradise on Nov. 9.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

The future of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in jeopardy after two years of devastating wildfires, will be one of the most pressing concerns before California lawmakers when they resume meeting next week.

PG&E could face billions of dollars in potential liabilities due to last year’s Wine Country wildfires and the recently contained Camp Fire in Butte County — which left at least 88 people dead — casting doubt onwhether the state’s largest utility can stay financially viable in the long run.

Lawmakers have already floated new measures, including one to let PG&E pass on to consumers more wildfire-related costs and another that could break up the company.

Legislation could be introduced as soon as Monday, when new members will be sworn in. Lawmakers won’t meet again until January.

Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said legislators need to more closely understand the intricacies of the state’s electrical grid, and whether they should hold utilities to a higher standard in light of climate change and technological advancements.

“These are all questions that are very important,” Dodd said. “At this point, to discount any of this is probably foolish. We should do everything we can to try to understand what we have and how we can do it better.”

Dodd’s bill, signed into law this year, gave PG&E the ability to pass some costs related to last year’s fires on to its customers. As of Friday, he was not working on another fire- and utilities-related bill.

But he was eager to learn more about another measure being developed by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, who chairs the Assembly’s utilities and energy committee.

Holden wasn’t available for comment Monday, but Bloomberg reported his measure would allow PG&E to use bonds for costs arising from the Camp Fire.

“An unstable utility grid will drive up costs and is bad for consumers,” Holden said in a statement. “Our priority will be on maintaining reliable and affordable utility service for all Californians, not on the fate of any utility provider — we will proceed with that principle in mind.”

PG&E crews work to clear downed power lines and telephone poles in Paradise, Calif. Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018 after the Camp Fire ripped through the entire town.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

The cause of the Camp Fire, which ignited Nov. 8 and quickly became the most destructive and deadly wildfire in state history, is still under investigation. But PG&E has told state regulators of two equipment malfunctions in the area, one shortly before the fire started and another shortly after, fueling speculation it will ultimately be blamed for the massive blaze.

The company, already under financial pressure due to those revelations, warned that if its equipment is found to be responsible for the inferno, the costs would exceed its insurance coverage.

Shares of the utility’s parent company, PG&E Corp., have dropped by about half since the fire started. Lawsuits against PG&E began piling up just days after the Camp Fire started. It will have to fend off the new legal threats as it continues to battle potentially costly claims related the Wine Country fires of 2017.

PG&E has so far declined to publicly detail its legislative plan in the wake of the Camp Fire.

“There will be a time and a place for discussing this and other matters, but right now we are solely focused on supporting the first responders and helping our customers recover and rebuild,” said Lynsey Paulo, a spokeswoman for the utility.

Paulo added the utility has not talked with Holden’s office about his plan.

PG&E crews work to clear downed power lines and telephone poles in Paradise after the Camp Fire ripped through the entire town.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Before the Camp Fire started, PG&E CEO Geisha Williams said the company still wanted to change California’s strict approach to liability under which utilities can be held financially responsible for fires caused by their equipment even if they were fully compliant with safety rules.

The utility would face a difficult path changing the legal principle, known as inverse condemnation. Dodd said he found it “very hard to believe” lawmakers would “move forward on any type of legislation that would eliminate inverse condemnation.”

“They needed to do a better job on making sure their grid was more resilient and didn’t spark these fires in the first place,” he said. “That would be letting them off the hook. That also, at the same time, would victimize victims once again.”

Meanwhile, the office of Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is researching its own proposal, which could include breaking up PG&E. But Hill, who has often criticized PG&E, said he’s still exploring options.

“We’re looking at trying to create the opportunity for a change in the business model, a change in the structure of PG&E,” he said. “The key is, we want to do something that is viable or workable and that is practical in the sense of doing the job that we think needs to be done.”

Patrick McCallum, a longtime Sacramento lobbyist who runs an advocacy group started to hold PG&E accountable after the fires last year, predicted Hill’s efforts may get more traction due to the Camp Fire’s catastrophic loss of life and property.

McCallum said lawmakers could also be more amenable to pursuing a structural review of PG&E — a direction for which his group, Up from the Ashes, unsuccessfully advocated after last year’s fires.

“I’m just hearing more legislators (ask) what is it about this company that just historically has made so many horrific mistakes with impact on people’s lives and homes and everything else?” McCallum said. “Something’s wrong. You heard it after San Bruno, but you’re just hearing it more.”

McCallum, whose Santa Rosa home was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire last year, said the structural review should be advanced by lawmakers or regulators “right away.”

The California Public Utilities Commission is conducting its own investigation into PG&E’s commitment to safety in its corporate culture. That review, spurred by the September 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and injured more than 50, may soon be expanded to include wildfires. A federal jury found PG&E guilty of obstructing justice in the San Bruno case by lying to regulators about its pipeline-testing policy.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Patrick McCallum’s relationship with Up from the Ashes.

J.D. Morris is a business reporter covering energy, including PG&E, Tesla and California’s clean power initiatives.

Before joining The Chronicle, he was the Sonoma County government reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he was among the journalists awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.

He was previously the casino industry reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. Raised in Monterey County and Bakersfield, he has a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley.